Monday, February 8, 2010

More on the way!

I wouldn't mind all this snow if MD had the manpower to keep up with it! Here are two pix from this morning. First the front porch (with is covered) after I shoveled 12 - 18 inches of snow off of it:

The snow on the ground is level with the porch which is 3 large steps up! It has melted a couple of inches because the snow stick is snowing a couple of inches!

Next is Big Green--our huge 1978 Mercury Marquis which sits at the back of the driveway. The raised deck is even with the snow.


One of my work colleagues posted this photo of our school:

The area to the left of the building is our parking lot--only you can't see it! Another storm is in the forecast starting tomorrow which is supposed to bring us 10 - 20 inches! Apparently it will bring blizzard conditions as well! Honestly I don't know why my school system doesn't just say that school will be closed the rest of the week. The neighborhoods aren't plowed yet! It's insane!

Meanwhile, I made it out to Trader Joe's to get more soy milk and cold cuts. I also picked up stuff to make broccoli cheese soup and managed to get another pound of espresso at Starbucks where the manager spotted me my venti latte for free!

We've held off on building fires during all this bad weather because we don't have a lot of wood left. There were a lot of power outages during the last storm on the weekend, many of which are still not fixed. We've been lucky but we figured we'd save the wood in case we lose power and need to heat our home with it. The wood burning stove insert in our fireplace puts out a lot of heat!

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Kitty Cam: Samantha discovered my duffle bag before I could put it away.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The things we Caps fans will do to get to a game!

DH spent about 10 hours shoveling. Our driveway is 140 feet long and he shoveled a crapload of snow! There is no place to put it. Since the Caps-Pens game was the NBC game of the week, they weren't going to change it and it went on at noon as originally scheduled. We carefully went through the neighborhood, to Rt. 32, Rt. 95 and the Capital beltway to Bethesda. I was amazed at how bad Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda was! The metro was swamped and I think everyone on there was going to the game. It was quite a party atmosphere. We were packed on like Sardines and we got to Verizon Center a few minutes after the puck drop. I was bummed during the game because the Caps were down 2 - 0 then Ovie scored 1. Then were were down 3 - 1. They must have decided that they weren't ready to break their winning streak and they came back third period to tie it up 4 - 4. So on to sudden death overtime and we won! It would've sucked royally to go to such effort to get there only to lose! We now have a 14 game winning streak. If we can win the next three games (right up to the Olympic break) we will tie the NHL record of a 17 game winning streak--held by (who else) the Pens!

Here's what the wall of snow looks like in our driveway:



Dug out just in time for the next storm coming on Tuesday! They are now saying 6 - 12 inches! I'm so glad that I have a sense of humor!

Kitty cam: Meanwhile, the boys enjoyed a spot of sun while hinting for a fire!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Snowcopalypse 2010

Remind me to stop wishing for snow. My wish was granted. In fact it was granted retroactively for the last 10 years or so. We got about 4 inches last weekend which was pretty. They've been calling for a big storm and in anticipation of that the area schools closed 2 1/2 hours early yesterday to make sure everyone got home safely. The snow was expected to start late morning. It actually began around noon but the temp was above freezing so the roads were just wet. Here's what things looked like Friday afternoon:


I put a snow stick out to measure the coming snow. The marks only went up to 12 inches so I put marks up to 25 inches on the back. The whole stick is about 28 inches tall.


Last night around 6 pm it looked like this:

I got up in the middle of the night and looked out but the screens in the windows were covered. It had gotten really windy and I just couldn't see anything!
Got up

At 10 am Saturday morning we had this:






The last photos were at 11 am. Note that a meter stick shows 27 inches at that time. We will probably end up with about 36 inches!






>

We stayed in Friday night and rocked the red! That means we watched the Caps game. I decided to rock the red and knit a red hat. I needed a break from my Brigitte sweater which happens also to be red. I had bought this Teva Durham pattern and the yarn for her assymetrical hat about 3 years ago. The yarn was all wrong though. I knew when I took it out. The pattern calls for bulky yarn with a gauge of 12 st. /4 in. on size 11 needles. I got gauge but the pattern really needed a thick single ply yarn like Rowan Biggie. My hat is too lacy--the stitches are too open. I haven't decided if I will wear it or not. I don't think it will be that warm. The yarn was really nice though. It was Tahki Torino Bulky. It's a lot like Berroco Pure Merino. It has a lovely twist!


I am concerned though. We have tickets for the Caps - Pens game Sunday at noon. There is no word as to whether or not the game is still on. The Pens are playing in Montreal as I type this and I wonder if they can even fly into the city! I hope they will do a ticket exchange if the game is still on because I really don't know if we can make it. We had figured we'd drive the highways into Bethesda and take the red line, which is underground, down to the Verizon Center. I hope I didn't throw away $250!

I'll keep you posted!

Kitty Cam: Meanwhile, Greg has the right idea of how to spend a snowy day!